There must be an infinite number of possible thoughts on any one piece of art, but we will only cover seven, a weeks worth. For 52 weeks, through 2009, you will see a work of art from the Portland Art Museum* and a riff each day inspired by it – prose, poetry, photos, video, thoughts or ponderings.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Brothers

I found this poem by Keats. It reminded me of Vincent and Theo.

To My Brother George

Many the wonders I this day have seen:The sun, when first he kist away the tearsThat fill'd the eyes of morn;-the laurell'd peersWho from the feathery gold of evening lean;-The ocean with its vastness, its blue green,Its ships, its rocks, its caves, its hopes, its fears-Its voice mysterious, which whoso hearsMust think on what will be, and what has been.E'en now, dear George, while this for you I write,Cynthia is from her silken curtains peepingSo scantly, that it seems her bridal night,And she her half-discover'd revels keeping.But what, without the social thought of thee,Would be the wonders of the sky and sea?

In 1889 Van Gogh painted The Bedroom, he said he enormously enjoyed doing this "interior of nothing at all." It has been suggested that he was trying to express his desire for simplicity and familial security. He said "The broad lines of the furniture must again express inviolable rest." Yet, the perspective suggests that the security, the hope for rest, is in a room of anxiety, where one is waiting and confined. The bird's eye view of empty chairs and Van Gogh's own self portrait on the wall suggest how lonely it must have been. The hundreds of pages to Theo are agonizing and brilliant. It is for the Van Gogh brothers as Keats wrote:But what, without the thought of thee, would be the wonders of the sky and sea?